Interview of George Little
Transcript Number 057

Good morning ladies and gentlemen. My name is Paul Zarbock. This is the 22nd of May, in the year 2001 I'm at the home of Mr. And Mrs. George Little. Mr. Little served a number of years in the Marine Corps. We're going to start off by asking him, why did you go into the Marine Corps?


GEORGE: Because, the Navy's Air Corps wouldn't accept me. I always wanted to be a pilot and I joined the Navy Air Corps. They sent me to Atlanta, Georgia, for examination. I passed real good on the written; 96 out of 100 and on the physical, they turned me down on account of I had the bones broken in my left foot. I played in basketball in high school. They wanted me to sign up anyway and go into navigation school or bombardier, something like that. It made me sort of mad and so I said forget it. I came back home to Concord, North Carolina and went right up and joined the Marine Corps.

INTERVIEWER: Now, what year was that sir?

GEORGE: That was in '42.

INTERVIEWER: '42.

GEORGE: After Pearl Harbor. I thought, well if the Navy don't want me, I'll get the toughest outfit there is. So, I went into the Marine Corps. My wife thought I was in the Navy Air Force. Of course, we weren't married then, she was my girlfriend. The first letter she got from me was from Parris Island, South Carolina. And she thought, my gosh, what's he doing in the Marine Corps? So, that's sort of the way it started off and as far as I'm concerned, there's no better outfit in the world than the U.S. Marine Corps.

INTERVIEWER: How long was boot camp in those days?

GEORGE: Three months. 

INTERVIEWER: Was it tough?

GEORGE: Huh! Well, if you get any lower than a dog, that's what you were when you was there. They took every bit of your self away from you. It was good training because it came in handy later on when you got in the thick of it.

INTERVIEWER: When you finished boot camp, did you get a leave to come home?

GEORGE: Nope. I got one leave all the time I was in the Marine Corps of five days just before I went overseas. I was stationed in the Philadelphia navy yard at the time. And we got five days, what they called a furlough transfer. You got to come home for five days and then had to report back to California. Actually, I wasn't stationed there. They moved me on down to Camp Elliot, close to San Diego where they were making up the ships to go overseas. I was at Camp Elliot for a few weeks before we boarded ship and headed out for New Caledonia.

INTERVIEWER: This is 1942?

GEORGE: 1942, yes.

INTERVIEWER: And you went ashore at New Caledonia?

GEORGE: Yes. It was a French island owned by the French government. They had a base there. In fact, I think that's where Halsey had his base of operations from. I was assigned to the first marine amphibian course at that time. That was the second marine division. If I hadn't joined at that time, there was still the first marine amphibian course. I was in New Caledonia a few weeks and boarded ship and went to join the second division. They were down at Guadalcanal. I joined up with them and we went on down to New Zealand. We had a camp down there after they closed off Guadalcanal. We were getting ready for the Battle of Saipan, oh, Tarawa. I'm sorry I get them mixed up sometimes.

INTERVIEWER: But you were on Guadalcanal?

GEORGE: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: How long did you serve on Guadalcanal?

GEORGE: Oh, just a few weeks at that time. I didn't see no action there because we were in the process of pulling out and going to New Zealand. I got wounded there though later and another time I was on Guadalcanal. When we got to New Zealand we started rebuilding. Guys were getting over malaria and so forth, building up strength for the invasion of Tarawa. That happened in January, 1943. After Tarawa, we went to build a camp on the big island of Hawaii, one of the Hawaiian Islands.

INTERVIEWER: Were you wounded at Tarawa?

GEORGE: No. Actually we built up there and was getting ready for the Mariana invasions which includes Guam, Saipan. The second division was scheduled to get Saipan. I went ashore on D-day with them there and our battalion was designated to the mountain fighting. We went right across the mountain to Saipan. That was a stronghold, the highest point on the island. Of course, my outfit got the job of cleaning it up. We went up there at night through the Japanese line. We slept up there and kept the top of that mountain. We were completely surrounded by Japs for five days before the rest of the division caught up with us on the flanks. That was some hard times right there, but we made it. One thing about Marines, you give them two canteens of water when we went up there, and we made it five days with two canteens of water and no food. Everybody was lethargic and couldn't hardly move around. We finally got some rations up there and had to move out then and go north on the island pushing the Japs towards the northern end. There was a guy that couldn't hardly move and we'd say, okay let's go, and we'd get up and go. We were actually moving on willpower rather than any strength we had left, but we secured that island.

INTERVIEWER: You were surrounded by Japanese military for five days?

GEORGE: Yep.

INTERVIEWER: You had two canteens of water?

GEORGE: Yes and plenty of ammunition though.

INTERVIEWER: What kind of weapon were you carrying?

GEORGE: I was carrying an M1, 30-caliber M1 and a whole bunch of grenades.

INTERVIEWER: What was your rank in those days?

GEORGE: I was a sergeant then. My lieutenant got cut up pretty bad by the Japanese saber. The guide and I had to take over the platoon. I became platoon leader. I got full commission for lieutenant and stayed there with that same platoon.

INTERVIEWER: Well, if your lieutenant was injured with a saber, you must have been hand-to-hand fighting?

GEORGE: Oh, it was. We had a banzai attack right at night just as it's getting dark. Some broke through the line. We layed a bunch of them out for good. There was five that got in behind our line and went up to the command post which the lieutenant and his runner had behind us. One of them said, he was walking right up towards him, and said, "Who's there?" He says, "It's me Joe." They probably had as good as English as you and I, some of them. They walked right up to him and started whacking on him with a saber. The runner got him and was holding on to him and he got hurt real bad too. We heard the commotion and went running back from where we were on the ridge there. We got the Japs and we blowed the hell out of them right quick. 

INTERVIEWER: How many American soldiers, sorry, how many American marines were with you at that time?

GEORGE: The whole division was on the island. Do you mean in my platoon?

INTERVIEWER: Yeah.

GEORGE: Well, I started out with 58, but at the end of the battle there was 9 of us left. Some of us had been wounded, but were still ambulatory.

INTERVIEWER: Were you wounded at that time?

GEORGE: I got an eardrum blown out from a shell going off right besides me. It rings yet (laughter), but I didn't ever go to the sick bay because there wasn't anybody else to take over the platoon. I had some mighty good boys. I call them boys and I was just a boy myself, you might say. They called me their old man and I was all of 20 at that time. They said they'd go through hell and back for me as far as I could let them. 

INTERVIEWER: So eventually you got some rations?

GEORGE: Yeah.

INTERVIEWER: Another Marine outfit broke through to you?

GEORGE: Well, they were on the flank. We were right in the point and they're supposed to pull up the flank with us and they got mired down and couldn't get up there. They finally caught up with us. We outrun our supplies, you might say. But, they finally got where we could get some ration. By the time they got caught up there, we got the lines straightened out.

INTERVIEWER: They were mighty welcome visitors, weren't they?

GEORGE: Man, yeah. You hear people talk about C rations and K rations. There wasn't steak that tasted any better than that when we finally got them (laughter). We went off of that mountain, moving north then and there were some Japs off in a little valley like, holding up the line with machine gun fire and so forth. The colonel sent for me and I went up there and he said, "Take a patrol and see if you can find out what's down there and wipe it out if you can." I said, "Yes sir". I took a squad of men with me. We circled around and came in around from the sides and had a pretty good fire fight there for a little while. We got 20 Japs, four machine guns and a mortar. We didn't lose a man.

INTERVIEWER: You're now a second lieutenant?

GEORGE: Pardon?

INTERVIEWER: You're now a second lieutenant?

GEORGE: Yeah. I got several star decorations for that. You can take that, it used to be a dime, but it's probably 50 cents or more and you could get a cup of coffee with it.

INTERVIEWER: Yeah.

GEORGE: But, all aside, medals don't mean nothing to Marines, no way. But, we holed up and went on to advance then. We went on up there and.....what outfit was you in?

INTERVIEWER: The outfit I was in?

GEORGE: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: I was in the first ROK, Republic of Korea division. I was one of those, what do you call them, I was the American presence, one of the guys, the American presence.

GEORGE: You were an advisor.

INTERVIEWER: An advisor, yeah, which means you take over the platoon.

GEORGE: Right. The reason I asked you is I didn't want to say anything against the Army.

LOTS OF LAUGHTER

GEORGE: You know, if it happened to be the outfit you were in. We'd been on the line for 21 days.

INTERVIEWER: This is Saipan?

GEORGE: Yeah, in Saipan. We had been on the front lines for 21 days without relief.....27th Army division come in there to relieve us. We marched back several miles to a bivouac area and everybody said, the colonel said, dig in. I told the guys to do their salute. We didn't dig no foxholes four miles behind the lines. About four o'clock in the morning, here come a bunch of trucks in there. Everybody had to get up and get their gear ready. We were rushing back towards the front lines. We found out that the Japanese had made an attack on the 27th Army division that had relieved us. We had to go back up there and re-establish their alignment. I've often wondered how many American soldiers were killed by Marines that night. Everybody was moving, we shot and we didn't ask no questions. Some of them got run plum off the island out in the ocean at the end of the coral reef out there. When the tide came in the next morning, we had to pick them up in boats to keep them from drowning and bring them back to shore. That was quite an experience. I had wondered a lot of times how many soldiers we might have shot by mistake that night. That's the way war is sometimes. Friendly fire can be just as deadly as enemy fire.

INTERVIEWER: Yes.

GEORGE: By 08:00 that morning, we had broken an attack and pushed them back and went another 500 yards. We didn't get relieved no more, thank God. I like marching back and then rushing back. We stayed on the line until the end. There was a boy from hometown there that was in the 27th Army. I didn't know that he was in that outfit. He came to see me and was talking about the Pacific campaign and talking about the Battle of Saipan and so forth, which he was there. "What outfit was you in Max?" "The 27th Army". I said, "Oh my God. If you can, don't ever tell anybody that I was in that outfit".

LAUGHTER

GEORGE: He said he was the only southern boy in that particular company. The rest of them were from New York and New Jersey and up in that area. He said, "I was made fun of often on account of the slow talk". He said, "Don't ever tell nobody I was in the 27th Army". I said okay Max. We laughed about that a lot of times. Once we had to go out and rescue that night. My brother-in-law was in the Marines too and his outfit was tied in on the flank of my outfit. We didn't know it until four years later that we were that close together. He was within, what you might say, several hundred yards of where I was. It would've been good to see somebody from home, but we didn't know we was even that close to each other until four years later when we talked about where we was at certain times. 

Well after that battle, we went on to Tinian which the B29's flew off of with the Atom bomb for Japan. Weren't too much better fighting on Tinian though. I was there for a little while.

INTERVIEWER: Did you go in Tinian in the early waves?

GEORGE: We went in on D-day, that's right. Now, you know what was real disappointing though, we were going off the troop ships and going down the cargo nets with all your gear on and everything and getting in the landing boats. The last thing I heard over the PA system, when we got in the landing boats, the captain came on the PA system and said "As soon as all troops are disembarked, prepare to receive casualties". I thought that was a mighty tough statement (laughter). Nobody hid nothing from anybody, it was all out in the open. We went in the landing boats to a rendezvous place and went over into amtracks because in the coral reef, _________ Island, got on those amtracks and then when you hit the reef where the boats couldn't go through, you'd just climb over it and go on. You'd get up on the land, you'd drop the ramp and you'd swarm out of there like ants and spread out. That mountain I was talking about, the Japs had been there for 25 or 30 years, and they had tunnels and everything else. They had that whole island zeroed in with their guns. They were shelling everything out of us.

INTERVIEWER: This is Tinian?

GEORGE: No, this is Saipan too. No, Tinian, a walk through compared to Saipan. When we finally got to the top of the mountain, they didn't have their lookout there anymore, to spot movements you know. It went a little better from then on. Then they got the bright idea to form another division and all of the raiders, the Marine raiders were all put together and they took a battalion out of the second division and one platoon out of each company to form a battalion. We were known as search battalion 29th Marines then. We boarded ship and went back down to Guadalcanal to form up the 6th Division. We had two regiments, I mean two battalions when the 29th Marines joined us there from Camp LeJeune up there. The first battalion was the only one that had any battle experience at all, what few were left. We got built up battle strengths again with the replacements and started training for the Battle of Okinawa. That's where I got wounded, on Guadalcanal when we was training. I got a ricochet in my left leg and I thought boy, stateside now. I went to the sick bay and they pulled it out same way it went in. Two weeks later, I was back to duty. But when they got me in the head on Okinawa, that was laid me out for good there. 

INTERVIEWER: So you have two purple hearts?

GEORGE: No, I didn't even get one. I got one, but I never even claimed one for that one because that was not in action. That was in training. I would be entitled to them though, because I never did get one for getting my eardrum blown out either.

INTERVIEWER: That's right.

GEORGE: Actually, I should have three, but one is enough (laughter).

INTERVIEWER: Okay, take me to Okinawa. 

GEORGE: That was the damndest thing there ever was. We trained there on Guadalcanal with all the Marine raider units and para-marines had all pulled in there and formed the 6th Division. We left out for Guadalcanal and rendezvoused; you left the islands. There were a thousand and something ships in the convoy. And, we were on the ships 55 days before we got our feet on the ground again. I was getting pretty well tired of the water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink you might say. But, when we landed on Okinawa, we had about a 20 foot cliff that we had to scale up anchored from the beach. Actually when we got on the beach, they told us in preparedness for the invasion that it would probably take us three days at the very best to take this airstrip called the Yonpon(?) airfield which was maybe a mile from the shore, parallel with it. We had an hour and 15 men and we didn't meet no resistance there. 

They had rendezvoused on the other side, part of the ships, on the other side of the island, the east side. We had landing boats maneuvering around out there and Japs thought were going to attack from that side. While they moved their equipment over there to meet that invasion, we landed on the western side of the island, with just token resistance. We got on the beaches. They set all these tombs that were built into the hills there, where they set up machine guns and stuff. They were just burial tombs and we got up there and secured that airfield and went on the other side of it. We dug in. Within the first day, in fact one hour and 15 minutes from the time we landed, we had it in our hands. No Jap planes on it because our fighter planes had definitely cleared the area of all their planes. They didn't have any air force at all there. 

While we were dug in there, that first night, this Jap, must have been a courier or something, he come in there and landed there on that field. He pulled his plane up there and stepped out, oh, maybe a 100 foot from where some Marines were dug in. Somebody said, "Who's that", and he started yelping out some Japanese and then he got blown to pieces. Evidently he must have had something to tell their commander there and he didn't never get it told. That was the first day of April, 1945 when we landed there. It was Easter Sunday and also April Fool's day. The first time I ever knew Easter to come on the first day of April, but, that's when it was, in 1945. 

The next week, that was on a Sunday, and next Sunday is when I got wounded. We started pushing north to clear out that part of the island and eventually we run out to the left off the main island. Our battalion was designated to clear that out. I got wounded out there on the 8th day of April. From there on, they had it rough though. The real hard part of the fighting was afterwards, we went south towards Naha. They had everything dug in down there in the Honeycomb Mountains and stuff. I don't really know nothing first hand about that fighting there because I was already wounded and gone. 

INTERVIEWER: What was the wound? Was it a small arms fire or shrapnel?

GEORGE: It was a bullet. The bullet clipped my left eye and it was what we always called a dum-dum bullet, soft nose. And, when it hit the ridge of my nose, it spread it out and it took out the right side, my socket and cheekbone and everything. That happened about, I'd say, 1:30 pm after lunch. That was on April 8th. Some of my guys got me back behind, we were out in front of the lines on patrol and those boys carried me back about two miles. 

One of them from Jackson, Missouri, his name was Curt Harney, he was a sergeant under my command. He got me out. I named my son Curt after him. Next thing I knew, when I come to, I was laying stretched out on the bunk, somebody come by and heard me talking and said, "Hey, what time is it?" "It's about 3:30 in the evening". I said, "Where am I?" He told me. I said, boy, they sure got me here in a hurry, I didn't get wounded until 1:30pm. He said, yeah, but that was four days ago. So, I took a siesta for four days. And for comfort, they transferred me to a base hospital in Guam and from there, they flew me to a Honolulu hospital. And from there, to Oakland, California. Oak Knoll Hospital. From there to the Philadelphia Naval Hospital, that was the final destination. I got there on the 4th of July. I was the only one on the plane that was still on a stretcher and everybody else got off at the airport and left me on there. The pilot came back and said, "Who is supposed to meet you?" I said, "I don't know, I was just put on here" and he got the orders and saw that I was supposed to go to the naval hospital. They called down there, they were having a 4th of July parade and celebration right there in Philadelphia. Well several hours later, a station wagon drove up with two Corps men from the naval hospital to pick me up. 

INTERVIEWER: And all during that time you're laying on a stretcher on the airplane, is that right?

GEORGE: Yes, sir. They had to lay the seats down in the station wagon to keep me in the back of it. They finally got me down to the hospital. That was the 4th of July in 1945. And some 42 operations later, I was discharged in November of 1946. All those operations were not major. A lot of them were under local anesthetic, just skin grafts and bone grafts and stuff like that. But what took so long was having to wait for one to heal to do something else to build my face back. I finally got home to my sweetheart. That's about all I know about the Pacific.

INTERVIEWER: How was your medical care?

GEORGE: Excellent. It really was. You know, penicillin had just sort of come out then. My two arms were like a pin- cushion for a long time. They'd give me a shot in one shoulder and the next four hours it would be in the other shoulder. Then, back and forth. But, I'd have to say that penicillin is the reason I'm here today. 

INTERVIEWER: You were in the naval hospital in Philadelphia?

GEORGE: Yes, sir.

INTERVIEWER: Were you discharged from the Marines from that hospital?

GEORGE: Mmm, hmm. You see, Marines, they are attached to the Navy. The Marine Corps is part of the Navy, in fact. The naval hospital is the one that took care of all of the Marines as well as the sailors.

INTERVIEWER: Well how did you get from the hospital back home?

GEORGE: By train.

INTERVIEWER: Who helped you?

GEORGE: Me, myself and I. Back then, I didn't have any more sense than to try to think that I could do anything.

INTERVIEWER: What, you were an old man of maybe 21 or 22?

GEORGE: I was 21 then. No, wait a minute, I was 22. 

INTERVIEWER: And you got on the train by yourself?

GEORGE: I'll tell you how I did that. The Corps man got me to the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, where I got on the Pennsylvania train. I had to change in Union Station in Washington. Well when I got off the train, to change trains there, everybody emptied out and then there was always a crowd. I walked along with the noise and following the people until I bumped somebody and I said "If you see a patrolman around, will you tell him I want to talk to him". Well, people back then were real accommodating. They did find me a patrolman and he came up and said what can we do for you. I said I got to get on a southern train bound south towards Charlotte, North Carolina. I'd like for you to help me get in. He said, you're in the right place. Well, them boys led me right in, through the gate and down to the southern tracks. They got me on the train. I was the first one on it. They put me in a seat and I thanked them. I came all the way down south to North Carolina that way. Actually, I didn't go all the way to Charlotte. 

I got off in Concord, which is 22 miles from Charlotte. That's where my parents lived. They didn't know I was coming or what time or anything. They knew I was coming, but they didn't know when. I got off at the station, kind of slow then. Got off on the platform and I was just sort of standing around. This guy came up to me and said "Who are you?" I told him. He said "Are you _____ Little's son?" I said yep. "Come on, I'll take you home". He took me home in his taxi. He said he didn't know why he was there, but he just thought somebody might come in late. He took me home and I walked up the front steps with him helping me. I got to the door and I started to pay him. He said "You don't owe me one cent". I opened the door and walked in. That little girl right in there spoke (crying). I knew her voice, hadn't heard her in years. My mother and father and sister and brother were all in the living room. They never said a word. But Marie said hello. She come to me and walked into my arms and I was home. (MUCH EMOTIONALISM) 

We've been married 55 years and 5 months today, the 22nd of December is our anniversary. To me, she'll always be a sweet, little 18-year old girlfriend. (MORE EMOTIONALISM) 

I don't know if you want to ask me anything else about the Pacific.

INTERVIEWER: I've got a question.

GEORGE: Yes, sir.

INTERVIEWER All the battles and all the terrible things that you saw, what did you learn from it?

GEORGE: I learned that man is the most destructive animal on earth. You can talk about tigers and lions and stuff like that all you want to, but there is nothing more destructive than man himself. At that time, we were taught to hate the Japanese. I don't hate them now. At that time, they weren't Japanese, they were nips, Japs and any other thing you wanted to call them. But, about the most amusing thing I run into, if you can call it amusing, we were making an advance. This Japanese come up with his hands up talking English. He said, "I give up, I give up, I've had enough of this crap". And we come to find out that he was in school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When he went home to visit his family, he got drafted into the Army, the Japanese Army. He gave up and said he had enough of it. I don't guess that would be amusing to the Japanese, but it was to us.

INTERVIEWER: What island were you on when this happened?

GEORGE: That was Saipan too. Actually, most of the real actual fighting that I was into was on Saipan. It was just one week I was in Okinawa. And Tarawa only lasted three days and the grinding down was the worst part of it. 

INTERVIEWER: There's an awful strong bond between men in the military unit, isn't there?

GEORGE: Strong what?

INTERVIEWER: Bond.

GEORGE: Oh, yeah, Esprit de Corps you might say. That's one thing, the Marines would never leave a wounded man. They'd never leave him alone. They'd get him back some way or another even if they have to risk their own life to get him out.

INTERVIEWER: Would you do it again?

GEORGE: Yep. I've never been ashamed of being in the Marine Corps. I've always been proud of it. Even with what's happened to me and everything, what's that old saying, once a Marine, you're always a Marine. I still am, I guess. I always will be, for maybe a little while longer, not too much longer I imagine. I'll be 78 my next birthday and my health ain't the very best, but it's been quite a journey.

If anybody says they're sorry they ever served in the service, not me. I think you'd be better off if the young men going out of high school right now had a couple of years in the service until they could get their feet on the ground and learn what they really want in life. They'd be better off later in life. They'd learn some discipline. They might not want the discipline in the life in the Marine Corps, but I think it would be beneficial to them. You hear a lot of people say, the service just ruined him. It made a sod out of him or made a this out of him or whatever. That's a bunch of crap. The service don't make anything out of a man except what's in there to start with. If he's a man, they'll make him a better man. If he's a creep, he'll be a worse creep. But, as far as the service itself, you can't blame it for a man's actions and so forth. That's a lot of bologna, in my opinion. But, my opinion don't go far. 

INTERVIEWER: I got one last question.

GEORGE: Yes, sir.

INTERVIEWER: After your discharge, and after you got home, and that was a number of years ago, how did you earn your bread and butter?

GEORGE: You wouldn't believe it. I was a building contractor. They'd say, okay how did a blind man build a house. Well, my ambition was always to be an architectural engineer. I couldn't see how to draw the plans, so I decided to build them. I hired the crews and was in construction for about 33 years. We built eight churches, four office buildings, one knitting plant and about 350 houses during that time. I went to the job every day. And, you'd think that carpenters would remember from one job to the next how much space to leave for a window, a door, or a bathtub or whatever. I got asked them questions every job we were on. How much room do I leave here, how much room do I leave there? They didn't have to think. They just drove nails. I enjoyed construction. A lot of people would wonder, well, why in the world did you do that? Well, I knew something about it. I studied it in school. I enjoyed it. I didn't make a lot of money at it, but I built a lot of people nice homes at a reasonable price which I'm proud of. 

INTERVIEWER: Sir.

GEORGE: Yeah?

INTERVIEWER: Thank you.

GEORGE: Thank you, sir.